absolutely "burking" mad

Tonight I went to see the latest film release of Burke and Hare. This is a black comedy that is based on the Burke and hare murders, staring Simon Pegg as Burke and Andy Serkis as Hare amongst an all star cast including Christopher Lee, Ronnie Corbett, Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry . The actual story is about two men who snatched the dead body's from their graves as well as murdering 17 unfortunate victims. It was then that each of the body's was sold to the Edinburgh University for dissection for medical classes for a fair profit. I will not go into details of what happened to the two men as you should see the film for yourself or if you haven't even heard of them.

The film is based on the accounts of Burke and Hare but also adds some extra parts for the value of the film. Made into a black comedy about two men murdering for money this gives a bit of heart and you actually think these guys are just a couple of guys just trying to survive and aren't really that bad at all, but in real life must of been more evil and disturbed.

I really enjoyed this film, all the actors are well suited to their characters and the two leads pull of pretty good Irish accents and both worked really well together. I read in a review of the film that David Tennant was originally playing Hare but had to pull out. I don't think it would of been as good to be honest if he had continued with the role. The one who really stole the whole film for me was the brilliant Ronnie Corbett as the hysterical Captain McClintock, showing the he is both still very funny and that he is a good actor, each scene he was in just brought something to the screen making his character one of the most likable, even though he was the one trying to hunt down the two killers.

I would recommend this film but even though I enjoyed it many probably will not, it was very well acted and showed just how much the buildings in Edinburgh have barely changed since the early 1800's apart from the roads etc. Strangely I found myself quite proud to be Scottish watching this film, but I think that was due to the music and the bagpipes playing.

I should also mention that the term "burking" came from their infamous method of killing their victims, by purposefully smothering and compressing the chest of the victim. There is a funny scene in the film that explains this.